Sources of philanthropy

In order to get a picture of the size and scope of the the philanthropy sector in a country, different sources of philanthropy are classified. In defining philanthropy, a definition is used that is being used in the longitudinal Giving in the Netherlands study, which defines philanthropy as ‘voluntary contributions by means of money, goods and/or time (expertise), given by individuals and private organisations (foundations, corporations and charity lotteries), and serving primarily the public good’. Note that in answering the question of who gives what to whom, ‘given to organisations’ is added, because the numbers focus on institutionalised philanthropy.

Giving by households (in vivo)

Three types of voluntary contributions are mentioned, namely money, goods and time. Although volunteering by individuals is an important part of the voluntary contribution of individuals, measuring and monetising voluntary work is still very much a work in progress. Moreover, the possibilities for monetising volunteering is questionable and still very much an academic debate. Therefore, volunteering by individuals will not be a part of the figures. Also data on in-kind giving is hard to find, and has been only be included if available.

Giving by individuals also does not include any taxes that are being redistributed to non-profits serving the public good, such as church taxes, tax redistribution schemes, or percentage philanthropy practices. Although these practices form an important source of revenue for many non-profits, the voluntary aspect of these practices is missing.

Giving by bequest

Bequests, making donations to charitable organisations by means of a testament or will, are a specific income source in the income portfolio of non-profit organisations. Acclaimed as one of the drivers of ‘the new golden age of philanthropy’, the unprecedented expected intergenerational transfer of wealth provides major opportunities for non-profit organisations. As we can only rely on secondary sources, collecting data on bequests is more difficult than for in-vivo donations.

Giving by foundations

Despite legal differences between European countries of what is considered to be a foundation, foundation giving is defined as monetary donations from a private non-profit organisation derived from an endowment. By only including donations derived from endowments, instead of adding the total expenditure by foundations, counting donations from individuals and/or other organisations twice is prevented.

Giving by corporations

Although this overview excludes individual volunteering, some voluntary work is included nevertheless. For corporate giving we tried to include the total contribution by a company as calculated by the LBG model – one of the most commonly used methods by corporations (see www.lbg-online.net). This includes cash and in-kind donations in addition to the value of the work hours donated through employee volunteering schemes and any management costs incurred in implementing community investment initiatives. As a distinction between absolute giving (no returns from the recipient) and sponsoring (the recipient delivers a non-monetary return) cannot easily be made, sponsoring is also included.

Giving by charity lotteries

The final source of philanthropy comes from charity lotteries. Charity lotteries are not considered to be a conduit or form of individual giving, but specific organisations donating a considerable percentage of their revenue to charitable organisations. Also, charity lotteries are considered to be private players, independent from governments or politics. In many European countries, the revenue from (national) lotteries is redistributed to charitable organisations. However, in a number of cases they are a supplement to or replacement for government subsidies. As these lotteries are not independent organisations, for the purposes of this publication these lotteries are not included.

Philanthropic goals

For the aim of creating country profiles on giving, we have at least tried to include all the potential philanthropic goals. Next, we have provided broad categories that give a functional overview of significant philanthropic goals, instead of providing very detailed categories that might be considered independent categories in themselves in one country but do not exist in another, or might be considered too small.

For the aim of the country profiles the following categories have been used:

Religion

Health

International aid

Public and/or social benefit (national)

Sports and recreation

Culture

The environment, nature and/or animals

Education

Other (not specified)

Data quality

In order to answer the questions of who gives what to which charitable goals, we must first ascertain how accurate the answers to these questions really are. In other words, we need to know whether the studies that have been carried out to collect data on giving by individuals, corporations, foundations and charity lotteries actually measure what they are supposed to. Regarding collecting data on giving, this is not always as easy as it might seem. Answers to questions on giving depend on the way those questions are asked, the number of prompts and the length of the survey. Different methodologies lead to different outcomes.

Therefore, in order to make a country profile on giving, all contributors were asked to describe the background to the data that were available in 2015 about giving in 2013[1]. They included the sources of the data collection (secondary sources or population surveys), the frequency of the data collection (if any) and the most recent year of the data collection. Regarding the target populations, the description of the data quality includes statements about representativeness, their response rates and validity. They further described the questionnaires they used, the instruments for data collection and their internal validity, but also the sources of the data (sponsors), their accessibility (public or private and the costs involved for retrieving the data), the locations, availability and studies carried out using the dataset. Finally, they gave a description about the background variables included in the dataset. With the aim of assessing the data quality, we used representativeness, validity, the availability of a classification in categories of philanthropic goals and whether the dataset includes some (relevant) background variables.

[1] The country profiles contain data that was available in 2015 on giving in a country in 2013. It might be that new data has become available more recently.

Introduction on Giving Research in Lithuania

Philanthropy and giving research are at the margins of academic interest and statistics in Lithuania. Due to specific historical and political experience based on the non-existence of a philanthropic tradition during the communist period, an underdeveloped philanthropic culture, for many years giving was not identified as a social phenomenon or a relevant object of research. The historian Aleksandravicius (2004) argues that contrary to an old philanthropic tradition that has its origins at Middle Ages, in present day Lithuania it is still rather weak due to the civic tradition gaps that arose during the Soviet occupation period. Now there are a few researchers in Lithuania who can identify their academic focus on philanthropy studies and a few empirical systematic data on philanthropy in Lithuania.

Nevertheless, some qualitative studies and quantitative surveys have been conducted in recent decades, and are introduced below as milestones of philanthropy research in Lithuania. The qualitative research on the perception of philanthropy and philanthropic action “Philanthropy in post-communist Lithuania” was carried out in spring 2003 by Egle Vaidelyte as a part of her PhD research in sociology. For the empirical analysis Vaidelyte (2006) also employed the results of the representative quantitative survey “Philanthropy in Lithuania 2003”[2]. This survey up to now is the only representative survey that reflects a holistic view of public perceptions and attitudes towards philanthropy in Lithuania.

In her PhD thesis Vaidelyte (2006) characterizes philanthropy in Lithuania by particular and sometimes contradictory features, a dichotomist perception of philanthropy, and inconsistent philanthropic action. Post-communist Lithuania society identifies philanthropy with the Christian paradigm with a strong focus on social issues, although philanthropic players often come up against traditional values from the pre-WWII (pre-communist) period, contemporary political culture, socio-economic factors and by actions provoked by the way of living in the contemporary society. The high expectations of the state to foster philanthropic initiatives are also mentioned.

The abovementioned specificity of the perception of philanthropy is also revealed in the survey that was carried out in 2004 and that focused on the 50 biggest Lithuanian private companies[3]. The results indicated that the private companies of that time were donating solely to social projects (BAPP, 2005). Surprisingly or not, similar tendencies of the perception of philanthropy in society that eventually became public policy were reflected a decade later in a EUFORI study[4], which revealed that Lithuanian businesses do not really understand or are aware of the business benefits that different philanthropic models serve, and that Lithuania lacks consistent government policy towards philanthropy issues (Jatautaite, Vaidelyte 2014). Another project on philanthropy to be mentioned is the “National Strategy for Culture Philanthropy in Lithuania”[5], which was based on qualitative research including 20 in-depth interviews on cultural philanthropy issues with philanthropy players (donors, recipients and intermediaries). The results of this research indicated that the majority of philanthropy players have high expectations in terms of government support for cultural philanthropy and public policy fostering philanthropic giving (Vaidelyte et al. 2014).

Overview of Giving in Lithuania

There are few representative surveys revealing giving tendencies in Lithuania, so the philanthropy landscape in Lithuania has a limited view. The majority of the conducted research is focused on specific fields of philanthropy; the available data are rather fragmented and difficult to compare. Table 1. below shows the total giving for legal entities in 2013.

Table 1. Support received by all Lithuanian legal entities in 2013 [all types of donors]

million EUR

percentage

Religion

7.5525

6.9 %

Health

9.8186

8.9 %

International aid

N/A

–

Public/social benefits (national)

14.9878

13.7 %

Culture

10.7785

9.8 %

Environment/nature/ animals (inter)nat.

0.4413

0.4 %

Education

9.4217

8.6 %

Other (not specified)

56.6074

51.7 %

Total

109.6078

100 %

Source: Statistics Lithuania, 2013

The challenge in evaluating philanthropy in Lithuania is that different national and international representative surveys use different methodologies, and the share of respondents who declare that they had donated to charity varies over rather a wide range. According to the World Giving Index, in 2013 Lithuania ranked 112 out of 135 (CAF, 2014). However, contrary to the results of international surveys, national research indicates that the majority of Lithuanians donate to charity. Research on giving carried out by the Civic Responsibility Foundation in Lithuania “Charitable giving to Non-governmental Organizations by Lithuanian Residents“ declared that in 2013 more than half of Lithuanian habitants said that over the past 12 months they had donated to charity. The growing popularity of crowd funding is revealed in another national representative survey that was conducted in Lithuania in 2012. According to the survey results the majority of respondents declared they had donated money or goods during the last 12 months. On the other hand, the data from the European Social Survey (ESS6, 2012) indicate that the majority of Lithuanians (76.4 %) declared that in the last 12 months they had never been involved in the work of voluntary or charitable organisations.

Qualitative surveys in 2004 and 2014 indicated that the perception of philanthropy peculiar to Lithuania and based on a traditional understanding of giving has not changed much over the last decade. The respondents indicated that the main problems in philanthropy are related to the role of the State and public policy towards philanthropy issues in Lithuania. On the other hand, philanthropy in Lithuania also lacks private initiatives and civic engagement. Lithuania still lacks forms of philanthropy such as charity lotteries or giving by bequest. The qualitative and quantitative data indicate that the main field of giving in Lithuania is focused on traditional philanthropy values related to social issues. According to national and international surveys, the main recipients of donations, especially individual ones, appear to be health, social support, and the church or religious communities.

As discussed above, there are several initiatives fostering a philanthropic culture and practice in Lithuania related to the media, or virtual space, private charitable giving. At present the best-developed continuous statistical data on charity and philanthropy are provided by Lithuania Statistics. However, the scope of the data provided by Lithuania Statistics is rather limited; it is just focused on the giving and receiving of legal bodies, and it is not possible to acquire data on specific aspects such as charity lotteries, individual donations etc. Thus, the question of institutionalized initiatives on longitudinal giving research is still rather open.

Footnotes

[1] Public Policy and Administration Institute, Kaunas University of Technology

[2] The survey was conducted by the public opinion research agency Baltijos tyrimai and was funded by the Lithuanian Open Society Foundation in 2003.

[3] The survey was carried out by the market research company TNS Gallup and was funded by the Baltic – American Partnership Program in Lithuania (BAPP).

[4] The EURopean Study On Foundations (EUFORI) (2011-2014) funded by the EC Directorate General Research and Innovation, coordinated by the Center for Philanthropic Studies at VU University Amsterdam.

[5] Project funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and coordinated by the Future Society Institute.

Source

Vaidelyte, E. & Butkeviciene, E. (2017) Research on Giving in Lithuania. In: Hoolwerf, L.K. & Schuyt, Th.N.M. (eds) Giving in Europe. The state of research on giving in 20 European countries. Amsterdam: Lenthe Publishers.

The country chapter can be downloaded here. The full study on Giving in Europe can be ordered at www.europeangiving.eu

Giving by individuals in Lithuania

Statistics Lithuania, a portal for official statistics in Lithuania, does not provide data on giving by individuals.

Therefore, the only sources of data on giving by individuals are public opinion surveys based on subjective identifications of charity practices/behaviour. According to data from different surveys conducted in 2012-2013, the shares of respondents who indicated they had donated to charity vary over quite a wide range:

According to the World Giving Index, 12 % of respondents reported they had given money to a charity in the past month in 2013 (CAF, 2014).

Methodology of the survey. Nature of the data: a public opinion survey conducted in 2013 as Gallup’s World View World Poll. Target population: populations of different countries (including Lithuania). Representativeness: representative survey of the Lithuanian population. Sampling criteria: the total sample included 1,000 respondents; the samples are probability-based. The survey was conducted using face-to-face or telephone interviews. The main aim of the survey: to rank countries in terms of the percentage of people who had donated money to charity in the last month.

The main findings of the survey. The report included three main dimensions that had been analysed: helping a stranger, donating money and volunteering time. In Lithuania 12 % of respondents reported they given money to a charity in the past month in 2013; 13 % of respondents indicated they had volunteered time in the past month. Lithuania is 119th out of 135 countries with a total ranking percentage score of 21%.

According to the research on giving carried out by the Civic Responsibility Foundation in Lithuania “Charitable giving to Non-governmental Organizations by Lithuanian Residents“[6] in 2013, 67.4% respondents reported that over the past 12 months they had donated to charity.

Methodology of the survey. Nature of the data: a public opinion survey conducted 15-19 June 2013 by UAB “Rinkos tyrim? centras” (Market Research Centre, UAB). Target population: the Lithuanian population (over 18 years of age). Representativeness: a survey of the Lithuanian population; the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents reflect the breakdown of the Lithuanian population by sex, age and place of residence. Sampling criteria: the total sample included 1 000 respondents. The survey was conducted online. The main aim of the survey: to identify patterns of charitable giving to non-governmental organisations by Lithuanian residents.

The main findings of the survey. 67.4 % of respondents reported that over the past 12 months they had donated to charity. Most of the respondents who had donated money or things to non-governmental organisations had offered a donation to the Food Bank. Also, more than one out of ten respondents had offered a donation to a church, religious community or Caritas. One fifth (20.7%) of the respondents said they had donated money during television and other charity campaigns (Civic Responsibility Foundation, 2013). According to the report of this study, “the respondents were asked, if they would do a donation, which sector they would prefer. 66.1 % of the respondents would give preference to social and health-oriented organisations, 43.9 % of the respondents would give preference to organisations working with children and young people, 25 % for organisations working in education. <…> Respondents who during the past year had donated money to charity were asked which types of organisations or institutions the money was given to. Most respondents maintained that they had given financial support to organisations working in the area of health and social care (62.7 %). A little more than a half of respondents who had donated money to charity had given money to non-governmental organisations (52.7 %). Nearly a third of the respondents had donated money to religious communities and associations (31.6 %)” (Civic Responsibility Foundation, 2013). The future tendency is related to the decline of donations as “40 % of Lithuanian residents who had donated money or things to non-governmental organisations said that they for sure (7.9 %) or likely (32.1 %) in the future would donate more money than in the previous year to NGOs”. Considering the amount of donated money, the report reveals that “two-thirds (66.4 %) of respondents who had given money to NGOs in the past 12 months, had donated up to 50 Lt (approx. € 14.48), 23.2 % said they had donated between 50 and 100 Lt, and 10.4 % more than 100 Lt. (approx. € 28.96)”.

According to the research project “International Social Survey Programme: Monitoring of Lithuanian social problems (ISSP-LT)” conducted by the Kaunas University of Technology and funded by the Research Council of Lithuania, 27.4 % of the respondents had donated money or other things, or had supported non-governmental organisations in some other way.

Methodology of the survey. Nature of the data: a public opinion survey conducted during the period 4th October – 14th November 2013 by UAB “Baltijos tyrimai“. Target population: Lithuanian population (age range 15-74 years). Representativeness: representative survey of the Lithuanian population. Sampling criteria: the total sample included 2 170 addresses with 1 194 interviewed respondents. The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews. The main aim of the survey: to monitor social problems in Lithuania.

The main findings of the survey. According to the survey results, approx. one third of the respondents (27.4 %) had donated money or other things, or supported non-governmental organisations in some other way.

According to the representative survey results conducted in 2012 by the public opinion research agency RAIT, more than half of respondents (54%) declared they had donated money during the last 12 months.

Methodology of the survey. Nature of the data: a public opinion survey conducted in May and June 2012. Target population: Lithuanian population (age range 15-74 years). Representativeness: representative survey of the Lithuanian population. Sampling criteria: the total sample included 1 012 respondents. The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews. The main aim of the survey: to identify the popularity of donation portals among citizens and to reveal the donation habits in society.

The main findings of the survey. According to the survey results, the best-known donation portal in 2012 was Aukok.lt (12.8 % knew about this portal already), while each of the other donation portals was mentioned by less than 3 % of the respondents. The second best-known donation portal was “Bedu turgus” (2.9 % of the respondents knew about this portal already). Respondents with more years of education and a job, as well as schoolchildren and students, were more likely to indicate that they knew about the donation portals. The amount of donations ranged from 1 Litas (approx. € 0.29) to several thousand Litas; nonetheless the average amount of donations was 30 Litas (approx. € 8.7). The survey predicts a decline in donation practices over the next 12-month period, as the number of respondents who indicated their intention to donate during the next 12 months decreased (52 % said they would donate). The survey also revealed tendencies to make donations in clothes, food or other material things. As the survey shows, 32 % of the respondents indicated that they had donated material things. Women are more likely to donate material things than men. Married, urban residents with a higher income are also more likely to donate material things than single, rural residents with a lower income.

Nevertheless, the distribution of 2 % of personal income tax cannot fully be acknowledged as philanthropy, although these practices are important for understanding sponsorship and donation tendencies in Lithuania. As Article 34 (3) of the Law on Personal Income Tax of the Republic of Lithuania indicates, after the end of the tax period Lithuanian residents can re-distribute up to 2 % of their personal income tax for the sponsorship of Lithuanian entities that are entitled to charity and sponsorship under the Law on Charity and Sponsorship. The tax administrator transfers an amount not exceeding 2 % of the income tax payable on the basis of an annual income tax return to Lithuanian entities that are entitled to charity and sponsorship under the Law on Charity and Sponsorship. Residents do not have an obligation to do this; it is done on voluntary basis. In this way the law entitles all Lithuanian residents with a taxable income to participate in the sponsorship of non-government sector organisations.

Footnote

[6] The survey was carried out by the Market Research Centre “Rinkos tyrime centras” in June 2013

Source

Vaidelyte, E. & Butkeviciene, E. (2017) Research on Giving in Lithuania. In: Hoolwerf, L.K. & Schuyt, Th.N.M. (eds) (2017) Giving in Europe. The state of research on giving in 20 European countries. Amsterdam: Lenthe Publishers.

The country chapter can be downloaded here. The full study on Giving in Europe can be ordered at www.europeangiving.eu

Giving by bequest in Lithuania

No data on individual giving for charity by bequest are publicly available. Thus, we cannot identify the amount given by bequest, nor the number of individuals, which have given by bequest.

Vaidelyte, E. & Butkeviciene, E. (2017) Research on Giving in Lithuania. In: Hoolwerf, L.K. & Schuyt, Th.N.M. (eds) (2017) Giving in Europe. The state of research on giving in 20 European countries. Amsterdam: Lenthe Publishers.

The country chapter can be downloaded here. The full study on Giving in Europe can be ordered at www.europeangiving.eu

Giving by corporations in Lithuania

There is no clear information on charitable giving by corporations. The only available aspect of information is the statistics on charitable giving by legal entities in Lithuania that might include giving by corporations as well.

The general data on charitable giving by legal entities in Lithuania since 1996 are provided by Lithuania Statistics. The data since 2000 are available online. There are three types of information on charity and support by legal entities in Lithuania (see http://www.stat.gov.lt/lt/):

General review of charity and support received – Charity and support received by the donor.

Support recipients of charity and support – Charity and support received by legal persons.

Donors of charity and support:

Lithuanian legal entities – donors of charity and support.

Average amount of support provided by a Lithuanian legal person.According to the data of Statistics Lithuania, in 2013 Lithuanian legal persons-donors donated € 60.00 million as cash funds, € 1.6 million as services, and € 18.8 million as tangibles. Thus, in 2013 the total amount of donations by Lithuanian legal persons-donors was € 80.4 million.

The average amount of support provided by a Lithuanian legal person is € 9 900 (Source: Statistics Lithuania, 2013

Source

Vaidelyte, E. & Butkeviciene, E. (2017) Research on Giving in Lithuania. In: Hoolwerf, L.K. & Schuyt, Th.N.M. (eds) (2017) Giving in Europe. The state of research on giving in 20 European countries. Amsterdam: Lenthe Publishers.

The country chapter can be downloaded here. The full study on Giving in Europe can be ordered at www.europeangiving.eu

Giving by foundations in Lithuania

In Lithuania there are hardly any truly confidential statistics as regards the total number of NGO (including) foundations and their classification against legal status.

Overall, there were 1 213 charity and support foundations (with 233 full-time employees) and 5 211 public establishments (with 2 510 employees) in Lithuania in 2009[7]. In fact, the number of foundations has remained fairly stable to date, while the number of public establishments has slightly increased. About half of the charity organisations are foundations. About a quarter of the latter (about 500) are private and/or family foundations. The majority of other foundations were established either by groups of individuals or NGOs. The activities of foundations vary a lot depending on their founders’ goals, target groups, funding sources etc. For example, there are foundations that were established to support schools, libraries, kindergartens, museums etc. There are over 20 corporate foundations. Also, many popular politicians (including the former president and his wife – the Alma Adamkiene Charity and Support Fund) have separate foundations. There is an increasing tendency among wealthy Lithuanians – both living in Lithuania and expatriates – to set up legal funding entities or to provide funding otherwise.

In 2013 charity and support funds received donations amounting to € 4.0 million from legal entities based in Lithuania and € 116 300 000 from foreign legal entities (Statistics Lithuania, 2014).

There are no data on the support provided by charity and support funds for individuals. Considering the support provided by charity and support funds for Lithuanian legal persons in 2013, the total amount of donations was € 72 404 000. According to Statistics Lithuania, Lithuanian legal entities received € 22 916 000 in cash from charities and/or foundations, € 510 000 in the form of services and € 48 978 000 in the form of in kind donations. In 2013 the support used by charity and support funds was € 140 544 000.

All Lithuanian legal entities that are entitled to charity and sponsorship under the Law on Charity and Sponsorship include charity and support funds. According to the data of Statistics Lithuania, in 2013 Lithuanian legal persons received support amounting to € 109 607 800.

Vaidelyte, E. & Butkeviciene, E. (2017) Research on Giving in Lithuania. In: Hoolwerf, L.K. & Schuyt, Th.N.M. (eds) (2017) Giving in Europe. The state of research on giving in 20 European countries. Amsterdam: Lenthe Publishers.

The country chapter can be downloaded here. The full study on Giving in Europe can be ordered at www.europeangiving.eu

Giving by charity lotteries in Lithuania

Charity lotteries are not a popular benevolent activity in Lithuania. Unfortunately there are no systemized data available on charity lotteries in Lithuania. Charity lotteries are rather a rare event in Lithuania and are mostly organized at single benevolence events during the Christmas holiday period etc. The best-known charity lottery In Lithuania up to now is the one that takes place every year at the Vienna Ball. The funds raised by the charity lottery at the Vienna Ball are dedicated to health issues.

Another popular charity event is an International Charity Fair that has taken place every year for the last 13 years during the Christmas period, as well as other activities including a charity lottery. Other charity lotteries in Lithuania happen occasionally and are focused on social care issues, for example the charity lottery for Save the Children, charity lotteries in local communities during the Christmas or Easter holidays etc.

There are no statistics on charity lotteries in Lithuania, nor has a survey been conducted on charity lotteries in Lithuania yet. What was possible to find out from a content analysis of Lithuanian Internet portals was that there were four charity lotteries in 2013: the charity lottery that took place at the Vienna Ball, an international charity fair and two charity lotteries organized by higher education institutions. All the above mentioned charity lotteries focused on health or social support issues. The funds raised at the Vienna Ball charity lottery in 2013 came to € 2 000. These funds were dedicated to hospital renovation. The figures from the other charity lotteries are not available.

Source

Vaidelyte, E. & Butkeviciene, E. (2017) Research on Giving in Lithuania. In: Hoolwerf, L.K. & Schuyt, Th.N.M. (eds) (2017) Giving in Europe. The state of research on giving in 20 European countries. Amsterdam: Lenthe Publishers.

The country chapter can be downloaded here. The full study on Giving in Europe can be ordered at www.europeangiving.eu